 Hello everybody, HoodieCobraCommander788 here, and this is a follow-up video to the video I did about how I make GI Joe review videos. That's one that I posted a short time ago. It was a long video. That video had a lot more specifics about my process that I used to produce these videos every week. But after I did that one, I thought of a few other things that I would want to add, some advice maybe that I'd like to give to people who are new to YouTube. Maybe not quite as specific to producing GI Joe review videos, but something that may be useful to just anyone who's thinking of getting started on YouTube and producing some content. So I thought I'd make this video as kind of a follow-up to add some additional thoughts. I have some notes. I think Timmer from Half the Battle has a trademark on that, so I hope I don't get flagged. But I'm going to go through my notes here because I think that hopefully this will be useful. Now, my channel is a relatively small channel on YouTube, so larger channels may have a different perspective. But this is how it looks to me from where I sit. So take this for what it's worth. It may not be worth anything to you. And also, what works for me doesn't necessarily work for everybody. So if you think that this isn't going to work for you, then just ignore it. But some of you may avoid some of the mistakes that I made, and some of you may get some advantages from some of the lessons that I've learned and maybe get a little bit of a kickstart on being successful on YouTube. So if I can help out in any way, I'm happy to do it. So let's go through my notes here. And the first thing that I have written on here is scheduling. Now, I'm not talking about your personal calendar. I'm talking about scheduling videos on YouTube. When you upload a video on YouTube, there is... You'll see a drop-down menu, and it had defaults to public. If you click on that, look at your options. There will be an option there for a scheduled video. When you select that, you'll get a calendar. You set the date and the specific time that you would like that video to publish. And this is extremely useful. When you schedule a video to publish at a specific date and time, then it pops up in subscribers' subscription boxes as if it is a new video. So it shows up in order, published on the date and time that you select. And man, that is incredibly useful. It keeps you from having to, you know, at the time that you have your videos go up. It keeps you from sitting there at the computer, being tethered to the computer, waiting for this thing to upload and publish, so it'll hit your subscriber's subscription feeds when you want it to. But so, you know, just upload your video, schedule it for when you want it to publish, and walk away. It really opens up your own personal schedule to do other things rather than be tied to the computer all the time. It allows you to plan things in advance. It allows you to... Once it's uploaded, you can watch it. So you can see the video as your subscribers are going to see it in advance, and so you can catch some mistakes that way. You can fix some things sometimes. So consider doing that. I see a lot of even veteran YouTubers who don't use that option, and I think it's just a really powerful organization tool. It helps keep your life organized, and so your whole life isn't, you know, revolving around YouTube and when you're going to upload. So that's something that I would recommend. It helps keep you on a regular schedule. It helps your subscribers know exactly when the next video is coming. So consider that. Consider scheduling your videos on YouTube. Let's talk about monetization. Now I'm all for it. These ads that play in front of the video on YouTube after a few seconds, most of us skip them, but those ads are extremely important. Now for a smaller channel like mine, and especially if you're just starting out on YouTube, the ad revenue from Google is a trickle. It's panties. Panties. But the thing is, they are your panties. You've earned them. YouTube is profiting from the content that you upload. Without people uploading content to YouTube, YouTube is nothing. So, you know, you are making money for YouTube. Even if you don't play an ad on your video, the time that people spend watching your video on YouTube is more time they are spending on that website, increasing the chance that they will see more ads. So YouTube is making money off of you. And part of that is yours. So, you know, take your panties. Those are panties, but they are yours. You've earned them. You should take them. And they do add up. It takes a while, but they do add up. So consider monetizing your videos. Brief few seconds ad plays ahead of them. Google gets some money and you get some money too. There are people who make a living doing this with their ad revenue. A channel of my size is not anywhere close to that. But, you know, I'll take those panties because I'm going to use those panties when they add up to hopefully produce better stuff on this channel. It all goes back into producing more stuff for the channel and hopefully stuff that more people would like to see. So consider monetizing two things about that. First, one thing that I always do is I uncheck the selection. When you go to monetize, I uncheck the overlay ads. I don't want to play overlay ads on my videos. Those are the ads that you see at the bottom as the video is playing that are overlaid over the video. The reason I don't like that is because the type of video I do is reviews and I need you to see the whole screen, you know, because I'm looking at a toy that's taking up the whole screen. So I can't have anything blocking any part of it. So I deselect that. Now, if you're playing a type of or you're doing a type of video that doesn't need the entire screen, then don't worry about that. But if you're doing a review type video, consider deselecting overlay ads. To me, they're just kind of annoying. And I try not to annoy my audience so I don't have those running. The other thing is if you choose to monetize, YouTube does not make it obvious how to do that. You can select monetize in your account on YouTube and you can select to monetize individual videos. And you may get ads playing on your videos, but you may not get any of your pennies from those ads. If you don't set up an AdSense account, link it to a bank account, fill out the tax information. These are things there are tutorials on how to do this elsewhere on the web. This is I'm not doing a tutorial on how to do that. But what I'm saying is they don't make it obvious. They don't give you any obvious instructions about how to jump through those hoops and go through that process. So look at those tutorials that are available online, Google it, follow those steps to make sure that you get the ad revenue that you are entitled to. Otherwise, hey man, you're producing stuff for free for YouTube and YouTube is making enough money as it is. They don't need to take your pennies too. So those things about monetization. Patreon. I have one. A lot of content creators have one now. It seems to be the wave of the future for how content creators fund their work. And I think that they are pretty cool. It's something that people can do voluntarily. It doesn't take anything away from people who don't want to contribute on the Patreon and who just want to watch the videos on YouTube. It doesn't cost them anything, but it gives the people who do want to support you an opportunity to do that. And it gives you a funding source outside of that trickle of pennies from Google. And even if you are producing videos that are not expensive to produce, like maybe you're just doing videos where it's just you talking to a camera. There's no production at all. There's no special effects or even no intro. The thing is, even if you're doing that type of video, having some kind of funding source and some kind of funding stream gives you options. Options like getting better editing software or getting better video equipment or farming out some of that process or some of the steps that you have to take, forming that out to other sources so you don't have to do everything yourself. These are options that you would not have unless you have some kind of funding source. And so Patreon gives you the opportunity to do that. And the thing is, if you do this for a while and start to gain an audience, what you will find is that there are some people who just love what you do and would be very happy to support you. And so let them, give them that opportunity. And you're also basically there's, it seems like if you announce a Patreon, there is inevitably negative comments and people who will just leave and people that will tell you they just don't believe in that. And you know what, that's fine because there are plenty of people who do. For those who want to support you, just let them. Give them the opportunity to do that. And if people don't like it, well, you know, they should try creating this stuff and they can do it any way they want to. But hey, it's your channel and you're in charge. So I have absolutely no problem with people using something like Patreon to realize some of the value of what they're creating because what you're creating does have value. It's not worthless. And so if you can realize some of that value, that's great. I support some folks on Patreon personally. I just wish I could support more. It's great to see people doing these things and creating these things. And I just would like them to have the opportunity to do more and maybe even do it better. So that's kind of my position on that. Now, should you start a Patreon right off the bat when you first get your channel started? Or should you wait until you're a little more established? Well, my first thought is wait until you're more established. That way you have a track record. You have a history of producing content. So people can have some faith that if they're supporting you, they know it's going to something. They know that you're going to continue to produce videos because you have a good history and a reputation. There is an argument to be made, though, for starting up a Patreon right off the bat. Now, you're probably not going to get very many Patreon supporters and very many patrons right off the bat if you've barely produced any content. But, you know, you never know. There may be one or two people who would be interested in supporting you even at the very beginning of your channel when you've hardly produced anything. That's possible. And if those two, if those one or two people would be interested in helping you out, then why not give them the opportunity to do that? There is an argument to be made there. But still, my preference is establish yourself, produce some content, create a good reputation for yourself and give people a reason to love you and want to help. So that's my, those are my thoughts on Patreon. The next note that I have is video quality. Alright, so there are all kinds of different cameras. There are some that are better quality than others. For some types of types of videos, you do not need an HD camera, especially if you're just like talking to the camera like this. You don't necessarily need to see every little detail of every hair on my head. But if you are doing the type of videos that I do where it's a toy review, you're going to need an HD camera. And the reason you're going to need an HD camera is because you're going to be talking about fine details in these toys. And if you don't have HD, then your audience won't be able to see them. So for something where you want people to be able to see it closely, something where there are fine details that you need to point out, you got to have a camera that's at least able to pick out those details and show them to your audience. For toy reviews, that's particularly important because some people are going to look at your videos and follow them as a guide when they are deciding whether or not to purchase those toys. So they need to see it. They need to see what it is that they're thinking about purchasing. So for those types of videos, HD is pretty important. So just those notes on video quality, I know that HD cameras are more expensive. I know that's an expense that not everybody can afford. I totally get that. But I think you will find that if you don't have HD for specific types of videos like toy reviews, you're going to have a hard time because even if viewers like what you do and you present it really well, if the viewers can't clearly see what you're talking about, they're going to have a hard time sticking with you. So consider that when deciding what types of videos you're going to do and what type of camera you might need. Let's talk about complaints. Guess what? You will get complaints. Anytime you stick your neck out on the internet, there will be somebody ready to chop it off. That's just a reality. But you got to take those complaints with a grain of salt. Sometimes they are useful. Most of the time they are not because most of the time they are made by people who don't produce content. They don't shoot their own videos so they don't know quite what goes into it. It's not that their opinion is invalid. If they don't like something, then they don't like it. Okay? But that doesn't necessarily mean that you need to change anything because you won't please everyone. I've said this before at risk of being redundant. You won't please everyone. And if you try to change something because somebody complained about it, you're only going to upset other people who didn't want you to change it. So the fact that you're displeasing someone on the internet is not significant. It's not something, it's not special. If you are on the internet, you will please, you will displease somebody on the internet. That's just a reality. So what I said last time, I want to reiterate. I got it from another channel, but you know, just paraphrasing it. Do it for the ones who love it because as you build an audience, you will find people who love what you do. And on this channel, we've built some relationships together. We have built some friendships together. And people, I love the people who watch this. And so, you know, I can see those who are enjoying this and who love it. And I will always do it for the ones who love it. And those who don't can move on because, for one, they're outnumbered. And for two, it took me a long time to find my voice on this channel to figure out what I'm doing and what I want to do. And I've kind of got an idea of, you know, what I want this channel to be. And so, I'm not going to speak with somebody else's voice when I've finally found my own. So as you produce content, as your audience grows, plan on displeasing some people, but over time, you will find your voice. And when you do, speak with your voice, not somebody else's. Just remember that you're in charge. You are in charge of your channel, not the people who are commenting. And since you are in charge, remember to do it for the ones that love it. They're the ones that will be much more rewarding than fretting over people who dislike some or all of what you do. Don't worry about that. They will move on. Let's talk about an important topic, copyright. Okay. If you do what, like what I do, in which case I use clips from cartoon episodes, images from comic books, things like that. There's always a possibility you will be dinged for copyright violation, because it's done by computer. The computers do it. A human being is not even looking at it. It's just, they're just searching for matches for certain copyrighted material. And when they get a match, then, boop, you get a strike or not necessarily a strike, but you get a warning. Sometimes they will just take your ad revenue. Any ad revenue you get from that video, it will funnel to the copyright holder. At other times, it'll block the video in certain countries. And in the worst case scenario, it'll block the video entirely. But here's the thing about that. I'm really encouraging more YouTube content creators to challenge those copyright warnings, those copyright dinks, because a lot of them are not valid. If you are using a copyrighted material in a fair use manner, then it is not a copyright infringement. Now, copyright law is complicated. And so I don't want to dive into the whole thing. But if you don't learn anything else about copyright law, learn the statute. And I will copy and paste the section on fair use in the US federal, the copyright statute. That's Title 17, USC Section 107. Read it. Memorize it. And if you get a copyright notice on one of your videos, challenge it. And let me talk to you about how to challenge it, because there are more and less effective ways to do it. When you challenge it, you'll have a space where you can type of a paragraph or two. It doesn't give you, you can't type the Bible, but you can type a paragraph or two. When you challenge it, couch your language in the exact language of the statute. Essentially, take the language of the statute, plug in your facts, and make that your challenge. It's like writing the first or the last paragraph of a legal brief, where you're taking the law and applying it to your facts. So where the copyright statute describes certain types of uses to be fair use, you're going to say, my video was fair use because it fit this exact part of the statute, use the exact language copy and pasted if you have to. And here's specifically why it fits that language in the statute. I think when an actual human being actually does look at it, I think it signals to that person that you know what you're talking about. And it makes it easier for that person to say, yes, that's right. That's not an infringement of copyright. And so that notice should be lifted. And I don't think you should let those go. Because if they're taking ad revenue, then that's your ad revenue. Those are your pennies. And the copyright holder, if you are using the material in fair use, they're not entitled to your pennies on that. They've already made their pennies. And so the fair use specifically is designed for things like commentary for criticism for news reporting for education for things like that. So go through the statute and challenge those copyright notices. Obviously, the less you use of the original material, the more likely you're going to have a valid fair use claim. It'll have it has like four factors in the statute. So look at those. They are factors. So if your video doesn't fit every single one of them, it's not fatal. But obviously, the less you use of the copyrighted work, the more likely you will have a valid fair use claim. Now, I am not guaranteeing that you will win those claims. I'm just saying that this is probably more effective. It has worked for me. I have had three copyright notices on my videos. I have challenged all of them. I have won all of them. So don't just don't just give up on that. But when you challenge the copyright notice, do it in the most effective way possible. Alright, let's talk about length of video. I upload some long videos sometimes. But if you're just starting out, it is probably a better idea to start with videos of no longer than say like 15 minutes in length. The reason for that is that if when somebody sees like a 3045 minute video or longer on somebody that they don't know very well, they haven't watched before, it takes some commitment, it takes some dedication to click on that and sit through that for 30 to 45 minutes. And a lot of people are just not going to do that. Now, if you've established an audience, and so your audience knows you pretty well, and knows that, you know, maybe you might put your videos actually worth sitting through for 45 minutes, then you're more likely to get views on those. But even online, if I upload something that's really long, I'm less likely to get as many views on that unless it's something big like the terror drone, you know, that brings people in. But if I were to do a 45 minute video review of Xandar, nobody gonna watch that. And you know, I understand, you know, that's that's just too long. And I would have a hard time committing the time to sitting down and watching a video of that length. So I see some folks producing videos that are relatively new channels, be conscious of the length of your videos. Now, if you just cannot cut it down shorter, then do it in multiple parts. That would be my suggestion. So that somebody can sit through maybe a 15 minute part one and then decide if they want to go to part two. But at least you've got them for that first 15 minutes. And it'll help, you know, get people familiar with you. And then, you know, you might gain some fans that way. And they might decide that it is worth sitting through another 15 minutes for part two. So I would just be conscious of the length of your videos, probably to start out with shorter videos and, you know, go to the long form videos as your audience grows and as you grow in confidence in producing your your material. Next thing, I talked about this little bit, but find your voice. Sometimes I see people producing video reviews, toy reviews like I do, and they're doing things that other people do, almost directly copying, like there's the formula that you're supposed to follow, doing this, this, and this for a toy review. And, you know, and that's not necessarily wrong with that. I mean, you do want to cover certain things for a toy review video. But if you're doing that, if you're copying somebody else, then you're missing out on the opportunity to produce something of your own, something that really speaks with your own voice. And it can take some time doing this to figure out what your voice is. But each of us has something special to bring to the table. Maybe you're an artist, maybe you're a musician, you know, maybe you're an actor, maybe you don't do any of that, maybe you're an accountant, I don't know, maybe you are particularly like technically oriented. All of us have something special, something that we can bring to the table that nobody else can. It may take you a while to figure out what that is. But whatever that is, use it, make your own content unique, make it special. And you'll find that you don't need to copy anybody else because you're pretty good yourself. So, so consider that. There are some new folks trying their hand at toy reviews. I really enjoy watching Cyber Tiger retro showcase who does Transformers reviews. I don't have any special interest in Transformers. But I love watching someone who loves this stuff. I mean, it's obvious that he loves it and enjoys it. And his videos have more heart than anything I see on YouTube. It's a beautiful thing to watch it. I mean, I would challenge you to have a bad day after watching Cyber Tiger's videos. I don't think it's possible to have a bad day after watching Cyber Tiger. You've got Chef321 who is trying his hand at like myth busting toy repair techniques. That seems like a fun idea. And I hope that that works out for him. But there are all these other angles that can be taken toward this particular area of YouTube. It doesn't always have to be, you know, looking at a toy and talking about it. There's there's so much still out there to be done. There's a lot of material yet to be mined. And so it's like I said, it's not a terrible thing for somebody to just go through the normal steps of a toy review. But with some thought with some experience, I think you will find that there's more that you can bring to the table. So use every advantage you have, every skill that you have. You know, if you're an artist, if you're an actor, whatever you got that bring to the table, bring it and always produce the best material that you can at that time with the understanding that you will get better. It will take some time. It will take some experience. But everybody starts out rough. And that's all right. But but you will get better. And getting better is not just about the technical. It's about learning how to express yourself in front of a camera like this, but really talking to hundreds and thousands of people. That is a skill that takes practice. But when you do it for a while and you get into the practice of doing that and you really find your voice, it is incredibly rewarding and will create connections with people that you never expected. And so that's what I would like to see for everyone who feels like trying this. And I wish you all the best of luck. That's all I had for my notes. This will be kind of a long video, which I know some folks will not watch it, but that's okay. I am hard at work producing the next review video. I've got some other things planned. But this I think will be the last part of my How to Make YouTube videos series. So I hope some of you got something out of it. Thank you for watching. I'll see you all next time.